Currents at USM

Peck Adds Depth to Religious Studies

Abraham J. Peck, a noted author and Holocaust scholar, has joined USM’s Department of History as an adjunct professor with an appointment also as special assistant to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to develop USM’s Judaica Collection and explore the feasibility of creating a center for post-Holocaust studies. His presence on campus, Provost Joseph Wood said, will enhance USM’s offerings in religious and ethical studies.

Peck’s primary interest throughout his career has been the shifting identities of Jews and Christians in the post-Holocaust world and the resulting shift in relationships between the two religions as Christian churches have confronted their history of opposition to Jews and attempted to rid themselves of anti-Semitism.

The proposed Center for Post-Holocaust Jewish and Christian Studies will examine the Jewish-Christian encounter from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on the disciplines of history, literature, sociology and religion. The center would reach out to the multireligious community in the Greater Portland areas.

“I see the appointment of Abe Peck to develop this center as an investment in the humanities, in some ways not unlike our R&D investment in science and technology,” Wood said. “In both cases, the expectation is that scholars will be able to generate external support for their scholarly work, and the benefit of that scholarly work will be university wide. Abe's potential impact, and that of the center, on academic programs is great.”

Now, Peck is teaching a course through the Department of History on “Ideologies of Evil: Anti-Semitism and Genocide in History.” His larger and longer-term task is to prepare a proposal for the center for Board of Trustees approval, develop long-range planning, and lead fund-raising efforts for the center.

He’ll also be working with the dean of CAS and faculty to further develop USM’s religious studies focus and will add his expertise on Jewish history to discussions of the Convocation on Diaspora.

A further but key responsibility for Peck is to develop the Judaica Collection, which was created originally by a donation from USM supporter Shep Lee and is part of USM’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity. “He’ll survey what materials are out in the community and available for donation,” Steve Bloom, director of the USM Library, said. “When the Glickman Library is finished, we will be able to provide state-of-the-art care for a range of materials. To develop the collection into a resource for scholarly work, I anticipate that Peck will create a board for the collection, develop policy on acquisitions, solicit materials, and create cooperative relations with other collecting groups.”

Peck will seek opportunities for partnerships for the center on and off campus. A natural partner, he says, would be the Center for Study and Prevention of Hate Violence, directed by Steve Wessler. He also will be talking to other units in USM about collaborative efforts in the area of religion and ethics, such as faculty in the Philosophy Department.

Off-campus, he plans to have a discussion about mutual goals with Seeds of Peace and with Bangor Theological Seminary about cross-listing courses. “I’m making contacts now,” Peck said, “and finding people excited about our goals.”
Another priority is to develop dialogues with high school students about religious traditions outside their own. “We need to help students better understand their own heritages as well as learn about other religious traditions. I’d like the center to play a role in bringing together Christians, Jews, Muslims, and those from other traditions,” Peck said. These groups will become increasingly important in the spiritual life of the state, he said, referring to state statistics that show a decline in numbers of people involved in traditional American religions and a growth in immigrant religions. New immigrants seem to be retaining their cultures, he said, so there is greater opportunity for tension and conflict between groups.

Wood confirms that the center’s proposed collaborations and outreach would fit well with the university’s mission and other partnerships with the community. “I see the center, which is to be self-supporting and externally funded, as an important venue for lively discussion and rigorous academic engagement on a number of issues that arise from the multiplicity of religions in the contemporary scene,” Wood said.

USM would also like to increase offerings in religious studies. “We have many of the elements of an academic program in religious studies,” Wood said, “and Abe's own teaching and scholarship can be a catalyst for such a program. It might begin as a simple interdisciplinary minor.”

Born in a displaced persons camp in Germany, both of Peck’s parents were Holocaust survivors. He has transmuted that legacy into an effort to reduce violence toward the “other,” working with groups on Black/Jewish relations, German-Jewish, Polish-Jewish and Christian-Jewish dialogues.

From June 1999 until coming to USM in January, Peck was director of academic research and institutional operations at American Jewish Historical Society, based at Brandeis University and in New York City.

For a year prior to that, from March 1997 to May 1998, Peck was executive director of the Holocaust Museum in Houston, the fourth largest Holocaust museum in the U.S. In addition to directing daily operations of the museum, he wrote grants and raised funds. Since 1998, he also has served as a consultant on international research projects in history and education for R&D Consultants Associates, a virtual firm. Most of his career was spent at the American Jewish Archives at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where from 1976 to 1997, he directed a staff of ten, edited a scholarly journal, and instituted an international fellowship program that granted 300 fellowships to scholars from a dozen nations. During this period, he also taught as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Cincinnati.

Peck holds a Ph.D. in European history from University of East Anglia (U.K.) and an M.A. in international relations from American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author or editor of 12 books and more than 20 articles.

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